Patch 4.1 Warlock Goodness

I’ve been writing a lot of general WoW posts recently, so I feel the need to write a warlock specific post. The patch is hitting tomorrow so let’s talk about the warlock changes!

Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%)

Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%

Seed of Corruption has been increased by 20%

Soulstone can now be used in combat to resurrect a targeted dead player

Affliction

Haunt damage has been increased by 30%

Shadow Master (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%

Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been double, but this damage can no longer be critical

Demonology

Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard of Felhunter

Pets

Doomguard’s damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets

Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.

Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled

Glyphs

Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds

The Dark Intent nerf is sad, but I suppose reasonable. I probably only really loved giving out the buff because I secretly knew it was a little OP, but still it never felt like an actual difference maker to me. The 3% haste will still be nice for whomever gets it, so not a complete deal breaker.

Rain of Fire and Seed of Corruption buffs were sorely needed. Granted, we’re not AoEing as much as we used to, but the times we need to it’s really really important. Blowing through my entire supply of mana to put out some really low numbers wasn’t fun at all. AoE adds should die faster now, and my raid rejoices.

The soulstone change was needed forever ago! When they changed battle rezzing mechanics to limit the amount you can use, it basically made the soulstone a useless tool especially in a 10 man raid. Now it can substitute for a druid battle rez and it’s infinitely more usable. I’d like to see the glyph buffed a little, but I suppose at that point it might be too much like a Druid’s Rebirth. How about buffing the glyph to 100% health but only 20% mana? Because if you can’t life tap your mana back you just aren’t playing the right class

The Haunt and Mastery changes to Affliction I think were needed when they moved Improved Soul Fire out of range for Affliction locks. I didn’t particular like keeping the buff up in combat in 4.0.3, but when they got rid of it, my damage hit basement levels.

I also think the Mastery buff was needed because Affliction’s mastery just feels broken. I don’t see how Mastery could compete with the other stats until our gear is at end of expansion levels and we’re swimming in haste and crit. It still isn’t wonderful, but it’s competitive with crit at some gear levels, and could be better than crit quicker.

Demonology changes? Go mana feed! That’s basically all I got….

The Doomguard change made me laugh. The original design from Blizzard was always to have the Doomguard be single target damage, and the Infernal be for AoE situations. Why then they designed a Doomguard that was awful against single target I have no idea. If your intention is for us is to use the Doomguard against single target, then just make it’s single target damage better than the Infernal’s. No matter how many times you tell us this is the way we’re “supposed” to play, we won’t do it until it makes sense.

Lash of Pain makes no difference to me, but the Felhunter buff is what puts the Felhunter pet back on the table for Affliction and for that I’m ecstatic! I don’t know why but the Felhunter always just felt more in line with an Affliction spec.

Glyph of Soul Swap I doubt will be a game changer of a nerf. Probably important in a PvP sense, I doubt it would change my life in a raid ever.

So that being said what are you doing once 4.1 hits? I’m respeccing Affliction and DoTing ZA and ZG bosses up like there’s no tomorrow.

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4 Comments:

The changes to the Soul Swap Glyph have got me all confused while playing. I keep thinking that the ability should be ready to use right around the time the mob is about to die, but then it’s not, then I panic, then I flail, then I go on a killing spree and pull the entire Tol Barad Penninsula. It’s really messy.

Soul Swap is probably the area I wrestle with the most, but I really love the flavor it adds to the spec so I keep at it. Finding useful places to apply it is some of the best fun in the game for me! It’s the simple things I know.

Other than that affliction has been like coming home for me. I always liked the spec, even if it’s a lot easier to keep the DoTs up than it used to be. My only other problem with the spec is that Seed of Corruption really feels broken. It was great in WotLK when we we’re AoE’ing for a consistent amount of time, but the areas I actually AoE are times when things need to die a lot faster than Seed of Corruption explodes.

They just re-nerfed UA in the May 2nd hot-fix. Apparently, UA’s dispel penalty was hitting for for too much damage (35-40k when trinked and procced). How is that too much? Warriors do that to me all the time.

The UA dispel mechanic is a really cool idea, but I doubt it will ever become what Blizzard always envisioned it being. In Blizzard’s mind they want a dispeller to see a team mate hit with UA, and think about whether or not to actually dispel it. The problem is (and it’s similar to the issue I raised in Ghostcrawler Meets George Miller article) that there’s too much on people’s brains in combat to worry about the specific scenario surround the application of UA. Arena teams are either going to always dispel it or never dispel it and deal with the consequences. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to “fix” UA this entire expansion and then it’s going to get completely redesigned next expansion.